Publications

This essay examines methodological nuances connected with historical research of Russian law. These nuances are studied against the backdrop of two books published respectively by Professor Ferdinand Feldbrugge and Professor William Pomeranz on Russian legal history. The methods employed by these authors reveal specific features of Russian legal language and mentality which can be helpful in explaining the dissimilarities between legal and political developments in Russia and the West. They place particular emphasis on the development of legal language and productively analyze many current issues of Russian law through the lens of history of concepts. These books are evaluated as important contributions to comparative analysis of Russian and Western legal cultures. The key events of Russian legal history are considered in a perspective that sheds light on the current challenges faced by Russian law.

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The Author proposes to amend the arbitration procedure law by introducing a case management concept, according to which the type of proceedings shall be determined by the court after revealing the respondent’s position.

Objective: A study of the Golden Horde historical sources of the midfourteenth century containing information on the history of law and trials in the Golden Horde, providing a comparison of the actions of the Golden Horde authorities with similar actions taken in other countries of that time. This includes a general assessment of the standards of the Golden Horde proceedings in the period under study. Research materials: The Golden Horde historical sources, namely, legal documents from the so-called “Venetian collection”, along with other sources from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries related to the proceedings of damages at the international level, including acts of the Venetian colonies of the Black Sea and medieval Rus’ian charters. Novelty of the research: This study is the first attempt both at a historical and legal analysis of the Golden Horde sources containing information about trials, as well as a comparative analysis of the actions of the judiciary at different stages of civil litigation which included international participation in the Golden Horde and contemporary states. Research results: The author reconstructed the main stages of the civil process in the Golden Horde (from filing a lawsuit to a court decision) and revealed the specifics of a particular case in connection with the participation of a foreign element, in addition to its public and legal nature (the lawsuit was not against private individuals, but against the state, i.e. the Venetian Republic). The author established that all procedural actions performed by the Golden Horde authorities in the course of the proceedings, as well as those to ensure the enforcement of the decision, had analogues in the procedural practice of other states that had interests in the Black Sea in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Accordingly, the author concluded there existed a high level of judicial practice in the Golden Horde, including elements which derived from foreign experience.

The criteria of invalidity of corporate bodies’ decisions used in Russian legislation and law enforcement are contradictory and they do not fully maintain the balance of shareholders’ interests. The roots of problems are a misleading unification of legal regulation of the meetings of non-legal entities and a corporation’s collegiate bodies as well as the introduction of the generic term «civil community» integrating corporate organizations and non-corporate groups. Furthermore, such grounds of the decisions invalidity as illegality of their content and violation of adoption procedure are not clearly distinguished. Organizational rights of the participants are unreasonably detached from their property (investment) interests. Consequently, the transfer of the right to the acquirer of the shares to claim the invalidation of the meeting’s decisions is incorrectly denied.

The author discourses on the question of how shall be realized a restitutional claim to a counterparty who himself is subject to bankruptcy proceedings: 1) the property that was alienated on grounds of an invalid transaction is excluded from the bankruptcy estate of the counterpart; or 2) the debtor, who effectively challenged a transaction, acquires a non-monetary claim to a debtor, that is transformed into a monetary claim. It is asserted in the article, that the answer to this question depends on whether to consider a transaction of a property transfer causal or abstract.

The book analyzes the legal aspects of the interaction between the Russian empire and the states of Central Asia since the early 18th century to 1917. The author describes the main stages of Russian influence on the legal development of the Central Asian khanates, outlining the main directions of this influence. He focuses on the ways and methods of the Russian legal policy employed in the Central Asian khanates placed under the Russian protectorate. He also explores the problem of the Russian legal policy implemented in the Central Asian regions with special legal status as well as under conditions of martial law, revolutionary situation, etc. The research undertaken by the author allows understanding of the historical experience of the integration within the Eurasian space of which the next stage is being actively realized today as well as evaluating the efficiency, strengths and weaknesses of the legal means of this integration in the 18th through the early 20th centuries.
The book is designed for specialists in the fields of history of state and law, Russian history, Eastern studies, political science, as well as for undergraduate students majoring in the aforementioned specialties.

This paper focuses on the evolution of Russian legislation, political thoughts and public administration as for corruption and anti-corruption measures in the exercise of public functions.

This paper analyzes the cultural constraints imposed in the Russian legal system by the prevailing social philosophy, which is characterized by a significant degree of religious conservatism and communitarianism. This conservatism is predictably opposed to sexual minorities and to those who want to defend or justify them. The author concludes that this philosophy strongly affects decision-making in Russian courts, and can sometimes overrule the provisions of the Russian Constitution and the laws that formally grant protection to sexual minorities. In turn, this conservative social philosophy and communitarian morality are based on religious patterns that are still shaping the mindsets and attitudes of Russians. These attitudes cannot be ignored by judges and other actors in the Russian legal system, who to some extent are subject to the general perception of what is just, acceptable, and reasonable in society, and are factually bound by this perception.

The author analyzes a current state of the Russian legislation which concretizes regulations of international law and the Constitution of Russia about the right to seek and receive information, finds problems of legal regulation of this right and specifies the perspective directions of development of the Russian information legislation. The author analyzes this legislation, its system communications and a ratio between legal acts.

The constitutional guarantees of the right to seek and receive information and rules of special legal acts are considered in logical sequence.

The author pays special attention to gaps and collisions which are obstacles for implementation of the right to look for and receive information. Difficulties exist on such questions as obligation of provision of information on request, protection of the state, office and protected by the law other secret, non-paid nature of access to information, differentiation of adjacent legislative regulation, a discretion by provision of information.

The author researches the constitutional acts of official interpretation of the most difficult questions of implementation of the right to seek and receive information and formulates provisions for completion of gaps and overcoming of contradictions of the legislation.

One of the main ambitions of the Russian Constitutional Court from the moment of its establishment has been to work as an intermediator between Russian law and the Western legal tradition, reshaping the former by bringing it closer to the latter. Such a role gave to the Court a justification for its existence in Russian law where this Court has never had any real power of constitutional control over the political authorities and their enactments. Human rights have been an important topic in these intermediating activities of the Court which actively utilised the human rights language to change the statist perspective common to Russian legal education, scholarship and practice of law. The topic of human rights turned out to be of great importance for the self-legitimation of the Court in Russian law and for aligning Russia with the European legal standards. Changes in the state ideologies in the 2000s involved for the Court the need to reconsider its approaches and to employ more conservative interpretations of human rights. After a number of discrepancies with the European Court of Human Rights, the Venice Commission and other European institutions, the Court increasingly relied on exceptionalist argumentation. In author’s opinion, with this the Court not only abandons its original function in the Russian legal system, but also could lose its institutional niche in Russian law. Assuming to have the sovereign power of exception, the Court could enter into an indirect normative conflict with the presidential power.